Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Study

Principal Investigators:
Dorothy H. Anderson, Department of Forest Resources and CPSP, 612-624-2721
Jerrilyn L. Thompson, Department of Forest Resources and CPSP, 612-624-3699

Project Personnel:
Lindsey Eichenlaub, Research Assistant, Forest Resources
Kate Flitch, Research Assistant, Forest Resources
Joanna Rosendahl, Research Assistant, Forest Resources
Cynthia A. Warzecha, Department of Forest Resources and CPSP

Project Duration:
October 2000 - ongoing

Funding:
Midwest Leadership Council, NPS
Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Summary:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one of western North Dakota's primary tourism draws, offers its 500,000 annual visitors excellent opportunities to view wildlife and experience the rugged geology of the North Dakota Badlands. Visitors participate in diverse activities such as photography, car camping, horseback riding, and backcountry hiking. Features of the park's geography and location afford various recreation opportunities. The park also stands as a tribute to President Roosevelt and his significant contributions to the conservation of our nation's natural resources.

Currently, park managers lack general information about its visitors. This study is gathering general baseline information about visitors and visitor use including, distribution, behavior, perceptions of crowding and potential conflicts, place attachment, and perceptions of visual intrusions to the park.

Managers hope data from this study will help them develop and implement indicators and standards to monitor impacts affecting natural and cultural resources as well as visitor experiences. Potential indicators include management concerns such as the quality of orientation, information, and interpretive services, quality of visitor facilities, number or types of visitor conflicts, perceived level of crowding, and the level of resource impacts associated with visitor use.

Visitors were initially contacted onsite during three visitor use seasons in 2001: spring, summer, and fall; mail-back questionnaires were sent to willing visitors. After following up the initial mailing with reminders and replacement questionnaires, 1,030 mail-back questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 82 percent.

A technical report discussed characteristics of summer visitors. The report describes visitors generally, and compares subgroups of visitors that were of interest to Park managers: 1) backcountry or wilderness campers, vehicle accessible campground users, and non-camping park visitors, 2) horseback riders and hikers, 3) local respondents and non-local respondents, and 4) family groups and non-family groups.

For all summer visitors, the most popular activities were wildlife viewing, taking pictures, and viewing plants and more generally, the landscape. The most important recreation experiences included enjoying scenery, seeing wildlife in natural habitats, getting away from life’s demands, and being close to nature. Visitors appear to be able to attain these important experiences which focus on escaping to and enjoying the uniqueness of the North Dakota Badlands landscape. Conflicts and problems at the Park are rare. Parkwide, crowding is not an issue on developed trails or backcountry or wilderness locations. There is no major Park “attraction” that draws people to one area, so conflicts with other visitors are nearly nonexistent. Gas and oil development, exhibited as oilrigs, towers, mechanical noises, and lights at night, threatens to be a contentious issue in the future, as development seems destined to continue. While survey respondents do not yet rate the presence of development as a serious problem, a sizable number of respondents did notice or comment on development.

Comparing visitors based on where they spent the night (in a remote campsite, in a developed campground, or not in the park) showed that these groups have different motivations for making their visit. Experiences held as more important by those staying in the backcountry or wilderness when compared to the other two groups included experiencing solitude, getting exercise, feeling healthy, thinking about personal values, sharing skills and knowledge, and challenging oneself. Campground users placed higher importance than the other two groups on participating in ranger-led activities. Despite these differences, visitors seeking different experiences were generally able to attain desired benefits. An exception was that developed campground users were relatively unsuccessful in their attempts to experience quiet and/or solitude; this may suggest that campground noise and behavior-related rules need to be enforced. Backcountry and wilderness trail conditions were rated positively, but this group was affected more than the other groups by the presence of development. Regardless of group membership, social conditions (crowding and personal conflicts) were rated as quite acceptable. If anything, visitors seem to experience greater dissatisfaction with physical Park conditions such as the visible and audible intrusions, not enough restrooms, and not enough informational/directional/interpretive signs.

Finally, results do not suggest meaningful differences between horseback riders and hikers, local and non-local respondents, or family and non-family groups.

Besides being compiled in a technical report, results and implications of the summer study were presented at the 9^th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management at Indiana University in June 2002. A presentation of results was made to Park managers in August 2002. Technical reports addressing results of the spring and fall “shoulder season” data and a research summary comparing all three seasons will be completed in early 2003.